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Maria Lucia Madariaga, MD, was honored with the Willard Daggett Cardiothoracic Scholar award for her research focusing on ways to conduct heart and lung transplants with methods that do not require immunosuppressive drugs.

Since its creation in 2008,the Willard Daggett Cardiothoracic Scholar award has been given to 11 residents pursuing cardiothoracic research who best embody its namesake’s legacy of outstanding clinical work and scientific research. This year’s honoree, Maria Lucia Madariaga, MD, was recognized for her research focusing on ways to conduct heart and lung transplants with methods that do not require immunosuppressive drugs.

“I am grateful to Dr. Daggett and the cardiothoracic surgical community for sponsoring this award,” Madariaga says. “I think it’s important for surgeons to ask questions and do research. The Daggett award recognizes the importance of physician-scientists and will support me in my efforts.”

The scholarship was created to honor Daggett, a retired MGH cardiac surgeon who founded the MGH Laboratory of Surgical Cardiovascular Physiologic Research and developed numerous techniques that better protect the heart during heart and lung bypass surgery.

“Dr. Daggett is a pioneer in cardiac surgery who mentored hundreds of surgical trainees during his amazingly productive 50-year career at the MGH,” says Joren C. Madsen, MD, DPhil, director of the MGH Transplant Center and co-director of the MGH Transplantation Biology Research Center, who manages the scholar program. “This annual award honors the many scientific advances that Dr. Daggett made to the field of cardiothoracic surgery and hopefully inspires the next generation of surgeon/scientists to achieve their own goals.”

Madariaga was honored during the annual Mortimer Buckley, MD Lecture in Cardiac Surgery on May 30 in the Bigelow Ampitheater.